The past of Ludwig Streds
by kklo
Summary: The sequel to Dark Secrets which presents the character's birth and how he ended up where he did, namely in two alternate story lines: The Desert's Phantoms and in the famous Survivors Log saga written by the reknowned DecemberGirl.


The past of Ludwig Streds Author's note: **Ludwig Shaddack Streds is a character made up by me and is not a  
reflection of me as a person. We have some common interest though but that's all.  
I should have given that character another name, but since he is made up in 1996 and  
already used in several stories, does it feel like it's a bit hard to change name now.  
I also prefer to call him Ludwig 'Streds' instead of Shaddack, since that is a very old  
nickname of mine, which I do not wish to be associated with anymore.  
**   
****

The past of Ludwig Streds   


  
****Written during the period 1997(-00) by Ludwig Tr.  
  
  
There was a dark night that hung over the city.  
But not a silent night.  
It was a very special night.  
It was December the 31st, 1999, the last day of the soon-to-be-gone-forever millenium.  
A worried man wouldn't care much about the big event if there were worse problems troubling him, and that was exactly what a male inside a local hospital experienced.  
He walked outside the room, looked at the clock on the wall and then continued to walk around as a restless ice-bear.  
Outside the new year arrived and a gorgeous fireworks lit up the sky while people laughed, cheered, hugged each other and were happy.  
00:10am, someone finally opened the door.  
The female doctor stepped out and watched the lonely man who was standing there and waited for a report.  
"How's Catherine?"  
The doctor Emma Zecharia catched his eyes and said: "You'd better sit down, Mr Streds."  
"W-w-wha-what's the matter…with her?" he said and started to understand that she had something bad to say.  
"Mr Streds, as you know, she got a very bad bleeding. We did all we could but... there wasn't enough blood of bloodgroup she...has. Had. We couldn't save her. I'm so sorry."  
"...my child?" he asked while tears started to gather in his eyes.  
"It was a boy but, he didn't survive either..."  
  
This was the end of the world.  
The man hid the face in his hands and felt how the reality began to fade out as he heard someone calling him 'dad'.   
It waas the voice of his dead son...  
No!  
There was someone who shook him for real and the voice became clearer.  
"Dad! **_Dad!_** Wake up!"  
  
Frank Streds opened his eyes and looked up at his boy.  
The reality and the memories arrived again. He had lost his wife that horrible new years night, true.  
But his child had survived.  
"Dad, it's already 10:00 a.m! You have slept way too much again." his five-years old son said seriously, sitting on the bed and watched him with spry eyes.  
A smile broke out on Franks face and he sat straihgt up, wrapped the arms around his son and hugged him hard.  
"Dad?? What's the matter?" The boy asked and laughed.  
"I love you so very much, son. Do you know that?"  
"Dad, you've got sweat in your face. You had a nightmare?"  
"Well..." Frank began and released the boy reluctantly.  
"And I thought **I** was the only one who had bad dreams! It was about me, wasn't it?"  
When Frank didn't answered his son just shrugged and jumped down from the bed.  
"Dad, get up now! I have already eaten breakfast!"  
He ran out from the bedroom and Frank got up and wrapped himself in his dark red dressing-gown before walking downstairs to the kitchen.  
Ludwig was in the hallway and put his clothes on.  
"Dad, can I run over to Jennifer for a while? We're going to play with Richard."  
"Okay", Frank said smiling, "but be home for dinner, and Ludwig..."  
"What?" his son asked, ready to leave.  
"Ludwig, be careful."  
"Dad, what can happened to me at the Smiths' backyard? I won't get into trouble. You don't have to worry. I can take care of myself. Jennifer's parents are home today too. See-ya later."  
Frank looked through the window, and watched his son cross the small street and meet with his friedn Jennifer on the other side.  
_I hope nothing bad happens to him, because if it does I don't want to live_. Frank thought, but then told himself that it was stupid to worry about his son until something really happened.  
He was well aware of that Ludwig looked like a completely normal child on the surface and acted rather normal.  
But when he was four years old, he had went through an IQ-test and the doctors had been amazed, which wasn't such a big surprise since most four years olds don't display an IQ-level on 155.  
"Your son is very amazing, mr. Streds." Had the doctor said. "His intelligence and power of deduction is far beoynd what's normal for an adult. I have never seen anything like this."  
"Daddy... Are we really going to go to Pizza Hut as you promised?" had Ludwig asked as he came walking out from the examination-room with a book with tales in his hands.  
H had smiled in reply, ruffled his son's hair and promised that they were going there directly.  
Frank was lost in deep thoughts while he emptied the cup of coffee and thus finished the breakfast.  
The day was perfect for working. Not too sunny and neither rainy, so that was what he decided to do during the light hours.  
Not that he was forced to work to survive.  
No no, Frank and Catherine had done great successes in the science how to reuse nuclear waste. They had developed a technique many other scientists had been impressed by. They earned the nobel-prize in physics in Nov 1999. They also got lots of money from the state, who wished to use the technology to start dealing with radioactive waste.  
They had bought the house in the summer, to spend their lives in together with their child, unaware of what the fate had prepared.  
The first months had been horrible hard. He had been alone with an infant and saw Catherine everywhere in the house. Her wonderful face, smiling as she used to. As she did, she was...happiness and optimism personfied.  
Catherine Shaddack had entered his life in 1995 when he studied at the university in Los Angeles.  
First, they had a good friendship and worked a lot together. They started to develop a real relationship and it was wonderful. Like a glove which fits on a hand perfectly.  
It ended up in an marriage the summer 1998. It was a very anonymous marriage with only the priest, professor Josefson and the precentor.  
They went to a very good restaurant together with Josephson and it had been a wonderful afternoon.  
The old professor had blessed them before he left them in the evening. He and Catherine had went up to their big flat and spent many hours together in bed.  
Catherine had so often reminded him of Charlene Davidson, his first real love in life. Smart, in love with the life, and in love with him.  
All years they had together had been fantastic, until she left him, but not all alone.  
Frank remembered when he heard the horrible truth from the female doctor. But also the relieveing news that his baby was healthy and alive. He had been such a little and quiet child with big blue eyes. Like his mother.  
When he got him in his arms for the first time could Frank see features from Catherine in his boy's face.  
They had decided the name for their baby several months earlier. If it was a girl would they call her Julia, if it was a boy would they stick with Ludwig.  
Catherine had bene very fond of Beethoven.  
Catherine…Catherine..  
"Maybe it's time to think about something else, for a change?" he said loadly and put the plates, cups and glasses into the dishwasher.  
After he was done in the kitchen walked Frank up to the second floor and had a shower. Fifteen minutes later could he finally sit down in his workroom, put a CD with Mozart into the CD-player and start to go through the papers.  
A warm summer wind blew into the room and made the curtains wave dreamlike.  
  


***  


  
When the autumn 2005 arrived, Ludwig went to to school for the first time.  
At the very first day had he already been making some friends and there were no big problems, except that he was way above the level among the first-graders.  
The teacher had already been informed that she was having a very special kind of child among the others, and she gave the youngster books with more advanced material to study.  
None of the other children seemed to really care about their new classmate's brightness and Ludwig was undoubtfully happy with the situation.  
During the evenings, Frank used tell him stories, mixed made-up and true ones.  
The storytelling-times were also a kind of therapy for Frank. He could tell them stories about fishlooking creatures and evil human-looking mice who killed innocent people.  
All three of them sat before the open fire and listened interested when he also told them about good mice on the planet Mars among lots of other things.  
  
Sometimes, it was very hard being a single father and Frank often used to ask himself if his boy was a very unlucky child since he hadn't got a mother or any relatives (except for Frank's old teacher, professor. Josephson, who had become some kind of a grandfather and used to visit them all now and then).  
Frank also thought much about Charley Davidson and wondered what she was doing and where she was living.  
Probably still in Chicago with her garage.  
Once a Chicago-citizen, always a Chicago-citizen.  
That plutarkian Lawrence Limburger had obviously disappeared in 1999 and never came back and the same had happened with that Detroit-maniac Napoleon Brie.  
Maybe they had gotten tired of failures, or maybe their high chairman had called them back, or… Frank didn't know for sure, and he didn't care much either.  
Hopefully there were no other plutarkians left on Earth and that was a big of a relief.  
  
And the years flew by like a river and his boy grew up like any other kid, except for the brilliance issue.  
Being ten, he was able to read through heavy and complex adult-litterature for university and college-students, and understand and work with advanced math and physics.  
The teachers had told Frank that they maybe should put him up a few grades in school but Ludwig always said no, and refered to that he liked his class and didn't want to split from them.  
Everything seemed to go on perfectly well, and it looked like Fate had finally decided to bring Frank's restless soul a harmonic and lucky life.  
  
In the summer 2011, when his son was eleven years, they were traveling to a house up in the mountains.  
There was a little house up there which Frank had bought once, and they had planned to spend a week there and enjoy the nature.  
And one day when they were walking around in the mountains, the inevitability happened.  
Something that Frank had feared for so many years.  
A lots of harsh voices interrupted the calm and peaceful sounds from the wind and the cataracts abd Frank's heart froze into ice when he recognized them.  
Only plutarkians and rats had such disgusting voices.  
"Ludwig, go and hide beneath that spruce!" He hissed and watched how his scared and confused son obeys and ran off.  
Frank slowly moved forward in the terrain and listened carefully to the conversation.  
"Those blasted martians are really stubborn!"  
"Yeah! They have had problems with the illness for years now but they refuse to give up chasing our crafts. But they won't dare to go down here and risk being spotted by the Earthlings."  
"Hurry up to fill the watertanks you idiots! We will have to take off in any minute!"  
Very relieved by the fact that they were not after _him_, Frank sneaked off as quietly as he could, but then one of the fishes spotted his movements.  
"THERE IS SOMEONE OVER THERE, SPYING AT US!"  
Frank threw himself forward and proceeded to run through the terrain with the pursuers close behind.  
There was nowhere to hide.  
Only open fields.  
His only chance was if he could reach the forest.  
Then he fell forward and he could hear his boy let out a yell in despair, as a warmt began to spread over his back.  
Ludwig ran out from his hidingplace and fell down beside his dad who slowly raised his head and tried to smile, looking at his son for the last time.  
"Ludwig...run...don't let...them...get you...I am so sorry...so...sorry... I really love you...son.." He said with a voice that was filled with both love and sorrow.  
Frank stopped speaking and his head fell down to the soil.  
But his child didn't run. He just shook the unmoving body, tears were streaming down his face as he screamed, "Dad! **Dad!!!** Wake up now dad! _Please_, dad!! Don't leave me alone!!"  
"Shall we kill the little one too?" asked a short rat and pointed the weapon's barrel the crying human.  
"No!" said one of the Plutarkians. "Don't you know who that is? It's that scientist Frank Streds' son and you have just killed Streds himself! What a blessing in disguise! Imagine how glad the high chairman will be! Bring that little snotty-nosed kid to the ship, 'cuz he's coming with us! Who knows, he might be useful?"   
A pair of disgustingly strong hands grabbed Ludwig from behind and dragged him away from the dead body of his father, into the spaceship.  
The last his saw was how one rat had started to dig up Frank Streds' last resting place.  
Inside the ship waited yet another plutarkian guard, who throw the human into a little room and locked the door properly.  
As their footsteps faded out, Ludwig crept into a corner and continued to cry until he fell asleep by tiredness.  
  
  
"There ain't no time for rest, earthling!" A voice barked through the darkness.  
Ludwig was not even totally awake when some strong and stinking arms pulled him up, before dragging him out of the ship's storageroom.  
Two plutarkians got him out from the ship and forced him to go through long corridors until they reached a little cell-looking room.  
They threw him inside and left, after locking the door properly.  
Inside the cell there was a bed and a little table with water and some food he actually could eat, although only the thought of eating made him sick.  
He emptied the waterglass and crawled up in the bed and started to think rationally about his situation.  
Crying was a useless waste of energy and wouldn't solve anything, neither bring his father back to life.  
Ludwig was quite sure that his dad wouldn't like him to just cry and mourn, and he decided that there would be no more of that.  
Being alone and abducted by aliens like in some crappy X-files episode was way less exciting than one could imagine, he understood that now.  
That also meant nobody would ever find him and he was totally by his own.  
They were going to search of course, all their friends. But that would be uselss. So bloody useless.  
He prevented the tears with a big effort of will and decided to sleep again to get rid of everything.  
And soon had Ludwig Shaddack-Streds taken off to the dreamworld where things tended to be so much better than in the real world.  
  
Nine hours later he woke up again with a jerk.  
Around him was a heavy silence except for a quiet dead wind that howled outside the walls.  
With tired eyes, the earthling looked around in the small cell looking room.  
No. It had not been a nightmare. It was still real.  
Suddenly he heard firm footsteps from outside, and his body tensed automatically just like a cat who hears the bark from a dog.  
Someone jerked the door open and stepped inside.  
Another ugly, well-armed, plutarkian.  
"Come here brat and don't try anything!" He barked with a voice sounded like if the monster from Alien had tried to communicate with its victims before ripping them into pieces.  
Ludwig moved forward as he was ordered.  
"Come on! **_Come on!_** **Move damnyou!**"  
These disgusting creatures seemed to dislike normal talking.  
They either shouted, barked or screamed and the guard wasn't an exception.  
He continued to bark and threating while forcing the human forward through endless grey corridors made out of steel that didn't seem to have any end.  
Finally, they reached reached two large metaldoors that opened up to let them in and closed behind them.  
They were now standing in a big laboratory.  
No doubts about it.  
The place was very impressing and every square seemed to be filled up with strange tools, instruments and unknown equipment.  
An ugly little man in white lab coat came limping and tried to smile friendly at the child, with only only result that he looked more like a living dead.  
"Welcome my boy. I'm doctor Karbunkle and this is my laboratory." he explained with a creaking voice and waved to the guard who still stood with the weapons in the hands. "You may leave now."  
"I am dreadfully sorry for what happened to your father, dear child. It was very bad very and wrong to murder him like that, and I assure you that the rat who did that has been thrown into our deepest jail-pit."  
_Lies, lies lies. I bet he got awards for killing dad!_  
"So child..." Karbunkle cleared his throat. "You will have to stay here and I'll take care of you and during the days, you will have to help me with my work."  
"What kind of work?"  
"You are one very smart human, aren't you? I think you will find it enjoying to work with the computers I have got here..among other things… so that you will have something to do during the days."  
"It sounds interesting, sir. But where am I?" Ludwig asked, thinking: _I better play the game right with them. For now. Until I get my chance to get away._  
"You're on the largest Plutarkian moon, but that is not important, my boy. Now come with me I'll show you the things I have here."  
  
For the rest of that day, Ludwig wa guided through the local rooms and halls. (But only the ones they dared to show him. He had the feeling they were keeping a lot from him, at least for now).  
No doubt about it, they really had lots of fascinating things and he was curious at the same time as he was scared.  
It also felt ery irreverent to be interested and engaged now when his father was dead and all, but he couldn't help it or stop the lust to learn and discover.  
At last, he was showed to his own bedroom.  
There was neat with a nice bed inside, a table with two chairs and walls that actually had some wallpapers.  
Before the strange creature who claimed to be doctor left him for the night, he handed Ludwig a laptop and explained that he would definitely need it.  
In the beginning of his sojourn, Ludwig was feeling very perplexed and unstable.  
Over and over, he came to realize that he was thinking of his father and faced the fact that he wouldn't see him again, ever, unless there was some heaven somewhere.  
Being on such a repulsive place, surrounded by loathsome fishes was also a big effort to stand.  
What susprised him was that they treated him nicely and even with some respect from the day that he'd been arriving to Karbunkle's domains.  
It took him a while to figure out too, but the answer came one evening when he happened to hear a conversation between the doctor and his chief over a vidcom.  
"Oh yessss, you repulsive stinkyness. The earthian child is absolutely amazing! He posseses all abilities we could ask for, and more than that. I am sure it has something to do with his grandmother's offspring."  
Ludwig's eyes widened. His dad had never told much about his parents.  
"Whatever the offspring of him is is not important! I must say that I'm very pleased with your results, doctor."  
"Oh thank-you, thankyou, your highest royalness!"  
"All you have to do now is making sure that the earthling will stay on our side. With his potentials can we easily put in a final and deadly crush on Mars!"  
The speaking plutarkian let out a load cackle and Ludwig felt himself getting goose-pimples.  
But then, at least he knew what they were planning and since THEY didn't know that HE knew, he had a rather good advantage.  
An advantage he planned to exploit to avenge his father's dead somehow and get away from the stinky hellhole.  
Until then, he had to play along their lines, clench his teeth and concentrate not to give his plans away by acting hostile.  
And his hatred grew.  
  


***  


  
The days, weeks and months passed by pretty fast after all.  
Ludwig felt that he at least had a place to live and things to do.  
It had been worse to have nothing, plus that the thought of getting back to the fishes gave him strength to go further all the time.  
And he learned, learned, and learned.  
New things went straight into his brain and got connected with the other information he already knew, creating more complex maps of knowledge.  
That was what he planned to use against them.  
If they only knew...  
HE knew…  
And also knew that time was not endless.  
One evening he had heard Karbunkle have another conversation with the high chairman about re-locating him sometime in the near future.  
So he kept his ears sharp and eavesdropped as soon as he got a chance.  
Although he didn't hear as much as he would have liked, it was enough.  
There were apparantly big prisoncamps with martians nearby where they conditions did not seem to be very unlike the nazi deathcamps during the second world war.  
Thus, he also began to collect all security-information he could ge this hand on in case he would ever be able to meet a martian mouse who could use the information.  
If the martians managed to get away, the pachydermatous piranhas would lose their most important slave-workers, which would cause them great problems.  
All he needed now was a chance to escape.  
  


***  


  
The year was 2013 and Ludwig Streds had turned thirteen when the day he had been longing for finally arrived.  
By then, he'd been captive at the stinking moon for 1 1/2 years, and had grown enough to take care of himself and learnt enough to give them a proper backstab.  
He already knew where he could steal a spaceship and he had figured out a way to leave enough trouble behind to keep them off his back for some time so he could find a decent hiding place.  
Escaping would be hard though, so he had to use all the cunning and patience he possessed.  
During the times when Karbunkle didn't watch him (and that was quite often) he created several bombs with a wonderful destruction-power to use as a token of his feelings towards them.  
They were finished and well hidden and he had secretly planted several small digital bombs into the national Plutarkian computersystem.  
All security-information he had gained was carefully stored in his laptop and looked like useless files if somebody by some reason would be checking through it.  
He was ready.  
Then the day came.  
By a pure coincidence this time, Ludwig heard some plutarkians have a conversation that involved him.  
They said that Plutark was not a safe place to hold him captive, especially not now when he was in a typical rebellious age.  
"They're gonna move him to one of the storage-planets where he will be more imprisoned." One of the fishes said. "Now just look at him! That little beast can run loose wherever he wants! Imagine what'd happened if he got to those martians! What do you think would happen? They would bash his little grey brain full of dangerous thoughts. Oh hell, they better move him soon!"  
Ludwig had breathed hard and the heart beat harder than usual.  
The time was running short and there were no more time to waste.  
That night when the halls and rooms were empty (except for the patrolling guards, whose schedules he already knew by heart), Ludwig sneaked around and hid all the bombs at specific places.  
Next thing to take care of was the computersystem, and it also requires most times.  
He went through all files and copied everything that contained information which could be useful, before he planted in his little digital destruction programs.  
The last thing he did was to set the time for them to start.  
All bombs were already set to detonate five seconds later, thus giving the deadly programs enough time to copy themselves through every possible gateway and destroy everything.  
Ludwig yawned and felt completely exhausted but also very excited and content with himself, for the first time in many years.  
All he needed now was a few hours sleep and a good potion of luck.  
"Tomorrow, I am free. Tomorrow, they'll everything they did to us." he said lowly to himself when he fell down on the bed and went to sleep almost immediately.  
  


***

  
When Ludwig woke up in the afternoon were there no time to eat breakfast so he stuffed down some eatables into his bag and spend the rest of the afternoon, pretending to be working with a useless project.  
No one disturbed him this afternoon as he was used to and that made him ver grateful to nobody at all.  
He glanced at his wristwatch and discovered that there were only ten minutes left.  
Quick and with an icy tickling in the stomache, Ludwig ran back to his room and stuffed the laptop into his very fullfilled bag before he ran off as he checked the time once more.  
Seven minutes left.  
Luckily were everything he needed already arranged and he only needed to get to the spaceships during the plutarkians' lunchhour, when they were stuffing themselves full of gross and repulsive things.  
His face strained by disgust as he thought of what they would possibly eat today as he hurried through the corridors, meeting both plutarkians and rats, who didn't pay attention to him as he was rather free to walk wherever he wanted.  
_Five minutes left._  
**"Streds!"  
**He turned around and looked up at the plutarkian who had yelled his name, scared that he had done something which had made them suspicious.  
"Yes?" he answered as calmly as he could.  
"They are having problems with the computersystem in one of the space ships, and they want _you_ to check it out and they need you _now_!"  
"I'm on it!" Ludwig answered and ran as fast as he could, feeling a great relief inside.  
_Four minutes left._  
"Ah, welcome kiddo." The plutarkian captain said, in an unusual nice way. "The maincomputer in the PL09 doesn't respond to commands anymore."  
"Alright, I'll check it out." Ludwig answered and began to walk towards the ship, then stopped and turned back to the fishes who sat around a table and did nothing at the very moment.  
"Don't you have lunchtime now? I heard there are fresh sewageworms on the menu today." He said, trying to not look strange.  
The Plutarkians looked at him interested and one of them licked his sharp teeth with a slime tongue.  
Ludwig shivered.  
"That's in ten minutes." The captain said, looking troubled.  
The human thought quickly, then said:"Oh, I just wondered because I need need silence and peace to concentrate when I am working on the ship. I hoped that you might have been able to go earlier."  
He smiled sadly to the captain who seemed to ponder for a moment, then decided that he had reason enough to leave earlier than the schedule allowed.  
"Okay! Ten minutes won't matter! **Everyone**, go and have ten minutes longer for lunch than usual. Hurry up!"  
Ludwig smiled to the captain again, but it was a smile that only came out of great relief.  
"Thank you so much sir."  
"Not at all!" the captain answered and walked towards the hangar-exit with the others.  
But suddenly, he stopped and looked back.  
"What is that big bag for?" He demanded.   
"It's my computer, some papers and compact discs for the system in case it needs a re-installation. It's not as heavy as it looks."  
The captain laughed and then left for real, and Ludwig felt the sweat rinning down through his face.  
_One minute._  
As fast as his legs would allow, carrying a heavy bag and all, he ran up to a small spaceship that was closest.  
Its shutter opened automatically as he approached it and he practically threw himself inside, over the controlpanels.  
_30 seconds!_  
The fingers danced over the controls and the engine started to warm up with a load whining.   
_20 seconds!_  
"Come on! COME ON!" Ludwig whispered and felt sweat pour down his face and just a few seconds later, the ship left the floor and was levitating in the air.  
A quick push on the remotecontrol for the ports and they started to open slowly, slowly.  
_10 seconds!_  
Slowly slowly…  
5 seconds!!  
His fingers were now so sweaty that they almost slipped as he pressed some buttons.  
3 seconds!!!  
The spaceship moved forward, faster than he had expected.  
"**Zero!** The whole system should be destroyed now." He told himself.  
Just as the spaceship flew out through the ports with the speed of light and out in the atmosphere, several load explosions destroyed the plutarkian mainlaboratory down on the planet.  


  
****

***  
  
.::!Choose a way!::.  
Now, you have two choices, because this story has two diffirent continuations.  
You can readon and the story will end up in "**Survivors Log - Brotherhood II - Bitter Streets**", a fanfiction by DecemberGirl which you can find at http://user.tninet.se/~mul858u/  
  
You can now jump to "**The desert's phantoms**" By Leanne MacLeod and yours truly here at Fanfiction.net  
  
*******  
Ludwig was lying unconscious on the ship's floor, unaware of what happened in the world outside his head.  
The spaceship was flying without any specific course and if he hadn't woken up in time, the risk would have been that he'd been crashing somewhere he absolutely DIDN'T want to go.  
Luckily, he woke up rather quickly and after he had quickly gathered himself from the physically shock of the take-off, he sat down on the seat and set Mars as destination.  
The ship made a sharp turn and flew through the black space, out of the Plutarkian solarsystem towards another one in the Milky Way.  
After he had finished the programming of the controls, Ludwig turned on the computer's communicationlink to Plutark.  
Now was the moment there, to check out if all the damage he'd hoped for really occurred.  
  
Connecting▄  
Closing link: cannot establish connection  
  
A huge grin spread over the young Earthling's face as he knew that the mainsystem wouldn't be down unless his little programs had done their duty and wiped everything.  
If also the bombs had worked and reamained undiscovered as he had escaped to the hangar, lots of the backups they had would also be gone.  
Their rage must be beyond description.  
A triumphant smile began to spread over his face as he connected to another Plutarkian database that only broadcasted recent and important news.  
Its location was on the mainplanet and was thus not destroyed.  
After reading a little while, he soon realized four things:  


  1. His destructive programs had worked exactly as intended
  2. So had his bombs
  3. They wanted him, and BADLY. Dead or alive. And they would never stop looking
  4. Karbunkle hadn't been present in the lab during the explosions.

He let out a sigh of disappointment.  
With that maniac still alive, they still had a decent scientist left.  
It had been better if that creature had been dying among some of the plutarkians who had been nearby when the laboratory got blasted.  
Cursing lowly because of the latter, he broke the connection and turned on the spaceship's invisibleshields to avoid being seen.  
Though, he would have to locate and destroy the part of the ship that transmitted signals to the Plutarkians, so that they couldn't track him, and time was short!  
Ludwig began to dig through electronic devices underneath the controlpanel and after about ten minutes he finally found what he'd been looking for: a little sender.  
He easily smashed it against the flor and stomped on it several times to be sure that it was completely out of order.  
When he was getting up, Mars was definitely more nearby than he had expected.  
Now there was nothing to do but to wait…and hope.  
A sharp signal cut through the stifled air in the craft and the young male let out a horrible curseword.  
The ship was running out of fuel and he would crash unless he landed it as soon as he could.  
Breathing very quickly, his hand ordered the ship to go down against the planet's surface.  
Underneath, there was a huge desert without anything living as far as he could see (which was hard since it was late evening).  
But then he saw a city at the horizon that approached very fast.  
His only chance.  
Gritting his teeth, Ludwig pushed the control column forward.  
The ship fell and the city was now so close that he could discern that there was no lights there and the skyscrapes looked all worn and dead.  
A few other nasty words fell over his lips.  
Of all places on the planet, would he be forced to live in a ghosttown?  
Appearantly, he had to choose between that or death.  
Ludwig choosed the first and pressed the control column forward again and the ship fell downwards right after he'd passed huge sanddunes, then right down to the ground.  
A hard slamming noise and violent shakings told that he had landed, even if it was a rough landing.  
There wasn't that much energy left in the spaceship, so he hurried to kill the engines and all unnecessary processes and lights, then he pushed on the button that opened the gate and went outside in free.  
A warm wind was blowing him in the face and he felt so happy.  
It felt like an eternity since he had felt something like that last time, but then, it had been on Earth.  
Feeling both very sad and very happy at the same time, Ludwig breathed deeply a few times, then went back into to the spaceship and opened his bag.  
Among all things he'd brought with him there was a canteen and he drank slowly, and then felt relaxed.  
Relaxed enough to try to think out what to do next.  
"The Freedom Fighters have probably seen the ship on their rader and will send some scouts out to investi..." he started to tell himself, but then cursed one more time.  
Since he had been using the invisible shields while entering the Martian atmosphere, nobody had seen him at all.  
In all stess he had completely forgotten to turn them on and that meant nobody knew he was there.  
The only ones who _maybe_ would find him were the Plutarkians, and if THAT was all he had to choose between he'd rather die.  
Feeling depressed and exhausted all by a sudden, the male human sat down in the ship's opening and wrapped a blanket around himself.  
There took a few hours before he finally felt tired enough to go inside, shut the gate and lay down on the floor, handing himself over to the sleep.  
  
  


***

  
  
When he woke up the following morning due to some disturbing voices in his dreams, Ludwig shook in the cold air that had forced its way into the ship since he'd the heating coils turned off.  
Then he froze as he realized that the voices were coming from outside the spaceship.  
That meant they were no dream at all.  
It meant somebody was alive around here and that meant he was probably in danger.  
He inhaled deeply, tyring to calm his fears but it didn't work.  
Suddenly, the gate was opened from outside and the first martian he'd ever seen appeared in the doorway, looking surprised.  
This mouse was greyish in the fur, had fair pink eyes, black hair and was HUGE.  
Although he'd been taught that martians were usually friendly, Ludwig backed away from the sight.  
The tall mouse (who must have been at least 6'8) followed slowly and light fell over him, displaying a long scar on the left side of his face, and that didn't make him look like one of the 'friendly' mice.  
"And who might you be?" said a voice from behind.  
Ludwig turned around only to find that three other martians who had entered the plutarkian spaceship through the little backdoor.  
In front was a short martian with orange fur and worn clothes. His hair was long and hanged widly around his face. The other one had totally brick-red fur and wild uncombed hair, and behind them waited a female mouse, bluehaired, with chilly eyes.  
"Better answer our leader when he asks you somethin'!" Grinned the red martian menacing while he started to finger on a stilett knife he held in his left hand.  
The atmosphere became more and more tensed and the huge martian with the scar moved closer until he was standing right behind him.  
"Are you keen on talking soon?" Asked the orangecoloure youngh martian coldly. "Intruders and spies aren't very popular on this side of the hood."  
"Then do you have any reasons to disklike me. My name is Ludwig Shaddack-Streds I am working for nobody but myself."  
The young martian examined at the human's decent face with clear suspicion.  
"What about this ship then? Is it yours as well?"  
"It's stolen. From the Plutarkians."  
"I think have heard enough from this little guy. Jack, keep an eye on him and take him to the tower." The orange martian said.  
The big mouse behind him put his hand on Ludwig's shoulder, saying: "Alright, move on."  
Ludwig thought many bitter thoughts it went up for him that he'd become a prisoner once again.  
In front of him were the ruins of the Brier Rose (but he didn't know its name yet).  
There wasn't much left of the most buildings after the wars and parts of their constructions had fallen down during all sandstorms and pierced into the loose sand.  
It felt real spooky, walking by ruin after ruin, a shining morning sun overwhelming of the cold air.  
An unintentional shiver ran through him and the large martian noticed.  
"Don't worry kid. We're not going to hurt you if you play after the rules."  
"That's hard when I don't know any of them. I never planned to end up here!"  
"May be so, but you did. And if you and that spacecraft of yours came into the hands of the Twisters, we would face very difficult times, sonny. They would be all happy to make us less happy. Storm would squeeze everything out of you."  
"The Twisters? Storm? Do you expect me to know all about this, this city? My home is Earth, not Mars!" Ludwig said, almost feeling a little offended. "And you haven't even introduced yourself!"  
The mouse laughed quietly.  
"My name is Ripper, usually called Jack. Jack the Ripper. Don't let that name scare you though." He snickered. "You want to know the history? I can tell you the brief version.  
We're a group of left-overs from this city, Brier Rose, since the day it met it's downfall. We call ourselves Sky-walkers. The one you spoke to is our leader Rex, and somehow my brother.  
As for the Twisters, they are the second largest gang in this city and enemies.  
They would do anything to wipe us out. Anything. Do you understand why it's so important for us to ensure that you are kept away from them."  
The information was everything but calming and comfortable and Ludwig scowled by the thought of all new trouble.  
So typical. Just as he had freed himself from all chains and unsteadiness, he was pulled into a new pit that seemed to be as dark as the Plutarkian one.  
Without noticing it, he had wrapped his both arms around himself and shivered.  
"Are you scared?" Jack asked him seriously. "Remember that you don't have to be as long as you are with us and play this street-game right."  
_Yeah right! And I who've never had a single experience of street-life._  
  
Ahead of them were three smashed and broken skyscrapes, reminding him of a large tower.  
Some part of him wanted to ask about them but he kept quiet as they went in through a pair of broken doors, then through corridors and stairs, not meeting a living soul.  
Ludwig suspected that all its inhabitants were examining and securing the stolen spaceship, maybe keeping guard somewhere or getting food.  
After what appeared to be a long time (minutes or hours?), Jack had reached a door that he opened, then made a gesture to the human to enter.  
Well inside, Ludwig actually felt amazed, because the hall was gorgeous, or had at least BEEN, a long time ago.  
The early morning-sun's first rays fell through a shattered glassroof at least 30 feet above.  
"Wait here until we come back." Jack said. "And don't be foolish enough to escape. You will never be able to reach the desert outside alive."  
He left the room and left the young teenager alone in the large hall.  
The teenager looked around again, then decided to play along instead of making troubles. He picked up his laptop to do some work and check out if the fishes had any news about him.  
About two hours later, Jack and Rex entered the room.  
The earthling was sitting on the table, a satisfied but also slightly sly expression playing on his face as he read something on the computerscreen.  
"I don't think we've to worry about him." Jack said causally. "He's not a liar and neither a spy. He doesn't look like one and he doesn't act like one. He is definitely not here because of us."  
"We'll see about that. And find out why he looks so content all by a sudden" Rex answered, well aware of that the little smile on the boy's lips was there still.  
But it disappeared immediately when he became aware of them.  
"Come with us." Rex said shortly and beckoned.  
Ludwig grabbed the bag and followed them through new stairways until they reached another hall, that was far from empty.  
The place was crowded with martians who all looked like the other he'd already met: dusty and with torn clothes.  
When they entered, everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing and just stared at him.  
Feeling like a completely idiot although he could understand their reactions (they'd probably never even seen a human before), he let Rex guide him into a little room aside from the hall.  
There were a couple of half-broken chairs and Ludwig sat down, waiting.  
"So, kid..."  
"Don't call me **kid**!" He snapped and stared the orange martians straight in the eyes.  
"How old are you then?" asked Rex with a grin.  
"I have no reason not to tell you that I'm thirteen."  
"We would like to hear how an Earthling could end up here on Mars? And in Brier Rose?" Rex said still grinning. "Therefore I think it would be good if you could enlighten us."  
"I told you before: I have _nothing_ to hide." Ludwig replied definitely and took a deep breath and began to tell.  
  
Time has an ability to run by quick when you are telling something important you've never told anybody earlier.  
Although Ludwig tried to skip all smaller details, it took hours to tell everything.  
Rex who had had that smirk from the beginning had gotten a more and more stiff face expression as he listened.  
When Ludwig finally told about the crashing-part had he gotten a pierced eye-contact that he seemed unwilling to break, but the human just looked back with a countenance that was totally relaxed and honest.  
"I see", he said slowly and gravely, "that you've been through more than I could have guessed when I first saw you. Shows you to never judge a book by its cover I guess. If we could help you get out of the city, we would. But that's impossible. No ways out."  
Ludwig shrugged his shoulders, feeling exahausted.  
"This means you'll have to stay here. There are no other options. We can't really let you go, because if you end up with the Twisters..."  
"Then they'll make me help them and then probably kill me, yeah, I know. Ripper Jack told me already." Ludwig said lowly, looking down at the floor and clutching his bag tightly.  
"Hey, don't worry. As long as you play along you'll be okay." Rex said gently.  
"Does that mean I am welcome here?" Ludwig looked up and eyed the martian firmly.  
His eyes didn't reveal anything until he allowed a real smile to break out as he extended his right hand in a buddy-kind of way.  
"You're welcome, Ludwig Streds."  
And, when he grabbed the martian's hand, life seemed to get very much better all by a sudden and he felt better than he'd done for years.  
  


***

  
The city of the Brier Rose, also called The Lady, was quite a wasteland that seemed to spawn perilous situations and danger in general.  
Being human wasn't exactly a adventage. More like the totally opposite. But Ludwig manage pretty during those circumstances.  
Most of the Sky-Walkers had accepted him without raising their eyebrows more than twice, and that was way more than he'd ever expected.  
The only one who still behaved coldly around him was a particular female called Ocean.  
She obviously wanted to make it clear to him how much she disliked strangers. Especially if they were of different species.  
Usually when Jack and Rex weren't around, she grabbed the opportunity to bully him and give harsh questions, hoping he would say something that could be interpreted as 'fishy'.  
He got used to it and usually got out of that kind of situations before they occurred.  
The spacecraft had been removed and dismounted and the useful parts had been taken up to the tower where he was putting the parts together in the great hall with the broken glass-ceiling.  
After a couple of weeks, he had managed to turn the hall into his own little territory where he could work as well as read and do his ponderings.  
He had even managed to get the fusion-reactor from the spacecraft working and electricity was rather welcomed in the large building.  
Rex obviously enjoyed to have a new member of that kind (human and all) and they spent pretty much time together, creating a rather strong bond of friendship. Yet they were rather different but that also worked out alright.  
They day also arrived, when Ocean stopped treating him as an outcast, when he had managed to save the life of one of the mice after a confrontation.  
A female called Crescent who was member of Ocean's own girlgang had gotten a serious injury and would have probably been totally poisoned if Ludwig hadn't possessed the knowledge he once had gotten from the Plutarkian moon.  
He had managed to clean the wound and neutralize the poison, and Crescent was on her feet after a few days.  
Inside, he had laughed scornfully at the inner image of the Plutarkians if they knew that he used the knowledge he'd gained from them to save MARTIANS.  
From that day on, he was also classified as an unofficial doctor since he was the only one with a good knowledge and could do more complicated 'operations' the others couldn't handle.  
Still, he couldn't understand how the martians could stand the enviroment they lived in.  
"How do you actually stand this? Getting into trouble all the time and getting' hurt?" had Ludwig once asked as he was cleaning a nasty cut one of the males had got.  
"Survival." the mouse had chuckled, but he immediately stopped when the human began to clean the wound with strong alcohol.  
As time passed by, he got more and more experiences of the Twisters, and finally he was also loathing them.  
They appeared to have no empathy at all, doing lots of pointlessly cruel things.  
The last thing he wished was to run into one of them.  
"You're gonna get to meet 'em sooner or later, doc. Don't you worry." Had Sliver once told him. "And you'd better run then, they don' understand anythin' else than this!"  
Ludwig had sighed as the redbricked knife-fixated martian once again began to play with his precious knives.  
"You're insane." he had replied, half serious half joking.  
It only resulted in that Sliver's grin became even wider than before.  
But he also had an uncomfortable encounter with Storm once, from which he had managed to escape. *  
(* - See 'An Unexpected Meeting With The Danger by Ludwig W. )  
After that event, he was definitely more careful and wished that he could get away from The Lady someday.  
Those prospected seemed to be very far away, though.  
Some days were also way worse than others.  
There were times when he and others who knew some about first aid had to deal with some wounded martians who had been so badly cut that they were on the edge to death.  
To cut in their flesh was an uneasy work that required tons of selfcontrol and concentration, but he somehow managed to do it everytime.  
"Karbunkle would be so damn mad at me if he knew how I used all he taught me. I think he'd actually be HURT. Not that mean it would be a _bad _thing, but just imagine..." He had said to Jack once who was standing beside him.  
"You are tough, little one, dealing with operations without even make a grimacies. I had been proud over you if I had been your father." The tall martians said slowly.  
Ludwig cleared his throat.  
The more time passed, the more uneasy did he feel and finally he got the courage to tell Rex about it.  
"I don't really like all this killing and street-jargon. It makes me feel sick and hopeless in the end. I use to call this tower _In medias res_, since it's 'the place where everything happens', but most of the events here aren't funny ones."  
Rex had been giving him a sad gaze that told Ludwig he agreed.  
Life didn't care about that and though went on as it always did.  
To Ludwig's great joy were both the Plutarkians and Stalkers still groping about in the dark in their search after him.   
Due to the information in their current database were they looking for him on Earth mainly.  
Fat awards would also be paid to anyone who could ensure his capture, which didn't feel too nice since he had a feeling that it was something the Twisters might do if they were given the opportunity.  
He longed so much to get away.  
For something extraordinary to happen.  
That day came faster than he had expected.  
  
"Good-morning Rex."  
"Mornin' yourself. Everything alright?"  
"I guess it is. I am going to work with some complex problems today, so I don't want anyone to come and interrupt me. Can you tell the others to leave me be if possible?"  
"No problems, work-addict." Rex said grinning as he shut the doors closed.  
Nobody came and interrupted him at all that day and it felt very revealing to have something that felt like 'a day off.  
But then, the silence was broken by fast footsteps accompanied by voices.  
The doors were opened and some people obviously tumbled inside the room.  
"Hey Rex! I **said** I didn't want to be disturbed!" Ludwig said angrily.  
The door slammed again and he turned around to face the one who had been causing the noises, then froze.  
On the floor by the door were there three humans who together with two martians who had to be Freedomfighters!  
  
**_Finally!_**  
  
****

*** The continuation follows in _DecemberGirl's _story "Survivor's Log: Brotherhood2 - Bitter Streets" ***  



End file.
